A major throughline during U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper’s tour of the construction site of the Residences at Durango was obvious: Community partnerships and regional collaborations are key to success.
Hickenlooper stopped in Durango on Thursday after a town hall in Cortez on Wednesday to check on projects he helped secure federal congressionally directed funding for, including $1.3 million for the University of Colorado College of Nursing and Fort Lewis College Collaborative’s new nursing training facility; $3 million for the Best Western motel conversion of 72 units into a 120-unit low-income housing community in Durango; and another $3 million for the town of Ignacio’s Rock Creek affordable housing project.
He met with health care CEOs and leaders at FLC, who spoke to area health care successes, needs and opportunities. He then visited the Residences at Durango, followed by a meeting with area stakeholders from La Plata and Montezuma counties.
Regional leaders stressed the importance of working together to tackle the housing crisis.
Regional Housing Alliance of La Plata County Board Chairman Pat Vaughn said of his 21 years in the La Plata County area, he has never seen the county or the city of Durango work as well together as they are right now.
Likewise, the two governments have never given as much recognition to the towns of Bayfield and Ignacio as they currently do.
He credited the RHA for running its operations between the county, Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio despite political differences present in each jurisdiction.
“The same appetite for some level of bipartisan, nonpartisan engagement on this stuff, it’s been there for 30 years,” Hickenlooper said.
He said if counties and municipalities can “put down their weapons,” meet each other at the table and work toward common goals, “that’s where the magic happens.”
Michael French, La Plata County Economic Development Alliance’s former executive director who currently works with the city on housing and tourism, also said recent successes are because of a collaborative approach to housing between the county and municipalities.
Housing built in Bayfield benefits Ignacio, Durango and the county, and vice versa, he said. Treating money put toward housing as collective money is viable strategy, and a different mindset from what is often practiced. And RHA is the binding force holding the collaborative effort together.
FLC Chief Financial Officer Samantha Gallagher said the college is exploring acquiring more off-campus housing for students. On-campus housing renovations and building costs have doubled over the past four years.
“What typically would have cost us $40 million four years ago to replace an apartment building is now in the neighborhood of $78 (million) to $80 million,” she said. “We’re trying to get a little bit more creative with that.”
She said the college has invested $1 million into a mortgage assistance program for faculty and staff, and so far it has provided $70,000 in down payment assistance for five employees in partnership with HomesFund, an area mortgage assistance nonprofit.
“We also have been working with developers to bring down costs for our employees, exploring opportunities to act as the construction lender, potentially to buy down that interest rate, because as we all know, interest rates are extremely high right now,” she said.
FLC is also partnering with entities such as Durango School District 9-R, Project Moxie and MGL to provide employees rental opportunities at below-market rates.
Attendees at the regional stakeholder meeting with Hickenlooper said while local collaborations are an important force, state and federal governments are also partners with roles to play.
French said federal dollars are used differently in rural America and rural Colorado, such as in Durango, than they are along the Front Range, and each community has slightly different needs.
He said a Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant to commission a three-year strategic workforce housing investment strategy, published in 2022 through the La Plata Economic Development Alliance, gave the county and municipalities a script to follow to meet their Proposition 123 commitments to increase their housing inventories by 3% over the next three years.
The plan gave the governments a script to increase available affordable housing by 108 units and 184 units for the county and Durango, respectively, and by 14 units each for Bayfield and Ignacio, per the Proposition 123 commitment.
“When you have a region that is on the same page strategically and then behaves collectively, the dollars go a lot further,” he said.
The workforce housing investment strategy includes a catalyst fund to jump-start workforce housing projects across the county. The Durango Herald reported last week the catalyst fund awarded $134,000 to area workforce housing projects in its third round of funding.
La Plata County Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton said federal policies are needed not just for the county, but for the nation.
“We’re working as hard as we can. You know, we’re spending what we can. We’re seeking what we can,” she said.
Land use, infrastructure and water in the context of climate change and sustainability need policy support. Even getting water companies funded to put residents on water taps is challenging, she said.
Vaughn said the state of Colorado has been “dismal” in addressing construction defect reforms for over two decades.
“A builder friend of mine on the Front Range says the Legislature and the lobby has robbed a generation of equity,” he said.
Hickenlooper told The Durango Herald the housing crisis isn’t just an American problem. It’s affecting countries across the world. At least part of the solution is to pay workers higher wages, he said.
If a worker is spending more than 30% of their wages on housing, he or she is paying too much money, he said.
“If you’re paying that much, you’re falling behind in your life. That means we as an economy … are failing our citizens,” he said. “Pay people more, find ways that we can help more people. In other words, pick up the tabs for some of the things that everybody pays.”
Hickenlooper said one way to convince employers to pay workers higher wages is to convey that everyone will pay for it one way or another.
“We’re going to pay for it anyway, one way or the other, and we’re better off paying people more and figuring out ways to otherwise subsidize their health care,” he said. “For instance, the classic example of their child care. The costs that a working family has to endure to put a hundred bucks in the bank at the end of every month, is extreme.”
He also said “a successful community” is one where people can afford to live and work there.
He suggested there should be some sort of program where local, county, state and federal governments are chipping in.
The biggest problem with child care, he said, is people working within child care aren’t paid high enough living wages. Child care services are too expensive for the people and families who need them.
That’s a clear sign of structural dysfunction, and that’s where the government needs to step in by helping child care workers earn a little more money and helping families pay a little less for services, he said.
“Part of what I like in Washington is finding things like that should be nonpartisan,” he said. “This notion that the free market is endless and needs no government help, when you look at some of the issues we’re facing, that’s because we’ve let it sit too long.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
